At 22 years of age I fell pregnant with my first child. I had no serious problems throughout the pregnancy, a bit of morning sickness, in fact I felt sick for around the first four months. I never reached the so-called blooming stage and suffered quite bad back ache throughout. Apart from these minor complaints the pregnancy ran smoothly. At 40 weeks I went to hospital for a check up and was booked in for an induction two weeks later if the baby had not arrived. At 42 weeks I went to hospital for induction. I was induced at 2.00 pm and at 10.10 pm my waters broke. I was told to see how I went through the night. Almost immediately the pains began to come. I was on a ward with a few other women who were trying to sleep so when the pain got to the point where I could no longer keep quiet I buzzed for the nurse to come and requested an epidural (I had already decided as soon as I became pregnant that I was going to have an epidural, there was no way I was going to give birth naturally). The nurse said it was too soon and I could have pethadine which she gave me and went away. This did absolutely nothing to take away the pain, it just made me feel a little light headed. I buzzed again and said I needed an epidural, she said she would have to check and see how far dilated I was. I was so pleased when she told me I was four centimetres and took me down to the delivery suite for an epidural. My husband met me there. Nothing happened much through the night but by 6.00 am I was fully dilated. They had given me oxitocin through a drip to speed things up. I was told that the oxitocin level I was receiving was double what they normally gave. At about 2.00 pm they told me it was time to push, I had no urge to push and could not feel a thing. I was pushing as they told me but nothing was happening, the baby was stuck. They said they would have to use the suction cup and possibly forceps. At this point for some reason I was hysterical, I think it was because of the forceps and for some reason I had it in my head that my baby was dead. I had gas and air to calm me down. I also began to feel the sensation back in my legs and told the nurses I thought the epidural had come out, to this I was told it wasn't possible even though this had happened to my best friend two months earlier. After trying unsuccessfully to deliver the baby with forceps they decided it was time for a caesarean. I was taken to theatre and given a full spinal block. The anaesthetist said that the epidural had come out. Before performing the caesarean they had one more unsuccessful try with the forceps. At 3.47 pm my little girl Kayleigh was born weighing a healthy 8lb 8oz. My husband took Kayleigh outside to meet her nanna (my mum) who was waiting outside. I began to feel myself drifting out of consciousness and the next thing I knew I was (my mum) who was waiting outside. I began to feel myself drifting out of consciousness and the next thing I knew I was back in the delivery suite feeling dreadful. I was told that my uterus had collapsed and I haemorrhaged quite badly. I was not really with it at all that day and didn't really come round until the morning after. I was thrilled to have a healthy baby girl but looking back now the birth was not pleasant to say the least.
When I fell pregnant with my second child at 25 I already had it set in my mind that I would have a planned caesarean. I thought it would not be possible for me to give birth naturally. I thought my pelvis was too small to deliver naturally. At my 20 week scan I went to see the consultant afterwards to discuss the delivery. The first thing she said to me was "the safest way to deliver the baby for the baby is by caesarean but it is more risky for the mother." At that point my mind was made up, I would have an elective caesarean. She went on to say that because I had dilated fully then there was no reason why I shouldn't be able to have a vaginal birth and I would be treated like any other woman, the only difference being that I had a scar. Unfortunately, it did not say in my notes the reason why Kayleigh had to be delivered by caesarean. My main concern was that I would go through exactly the same as I did with Kayleigh and then have to have a caesarean anyway. I was also very concerned about uterine scar rupture. I did a lot of research myself (reading other peoples stories on the internet etc) and decided I would try for a vbac. I worried constantly whether I had made the right decided and had many sleepless nights worrying about it. This time I decided I didn't want any intervention whatsoever and to give myself the best chance of giving birth naturally I didn't want any pain relief either, apart from gas and air which I read is actually good for the baby. The pregnancy was completely different this time, I actually bloomed and felt great all the way through. At 41 weeks my waters broke at 7.05 am. I went straight to the hospital but unfortunately I wasn't at all dilated. I was not allowed to come home because of the problems with my first delivery. Around 3.00 pm I was getting pains quite regularly, they were bearable and I decided to keep as active as possible. By about 11.00 pm the pains were so bad and about 4 minutes apart, I couldn't stand it anymore so I asked for an epidural, she s aid she could give me some co-codamol which she did and obviously it did nothing so I again requested an epidural, she said she would have to put me on the monitor first but while she was attaching it I had a contraction and she could see how strong it was so she said she would see how far dilated I was, I was disappointed to learn that I was only 3 centimetres. She took me in a wheelchair over the corridor to the delivery suite, by the time I got in the room and my husband arrived (luckily we only lived five minutes away.) I was checked again to see how far dilated I was, I was 8 centimetres, I was in agony and suddenly had the urge to push. I was pushing for 50 minutes and was just about to be cut when my little girl Ella was born weighing a healthy 8lb 7oz. I was ecstatic that I had actually done it, I had given birth naturally, it was perfect, the whole experience was exactly how I had planned. I even knew that I would ask for an epidural when the pain was too much to cope with but I hoped it would be too late so I would have to give birth naturally.
For me VBAC was the right thing to do and I am so glad that I decided to give it a go. It is probably the hardest decision I have had to make.
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